Welcoming and Allowing
One thing all the greatest spiritual teachers seem to agree on is that there is an optimal energetic posture that we can have towards our inner experience. That posture is one of welcoming and allowing. It is one of saying YES to WHAT IS. I have written about this before but it is worthy of being repeated, and repeated. More than that, it is worthy of spending time and energy developing this skill. When I find myself waay of course, suffering a lot, this always helps me to return to my true home, the ever present refuge called HERE and NOW.
One of my first teachers turned me on to a poem that describes this energetic posture perfectly. Many of you have heard of Rumi, the great mystic Sufi poet, and many still have heard his poem “The Guest House”. Let’s read -
The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
This beautiful poem is very much worthy of being on your shelf, I believe it is contained in this book -
What if we were able to remember in our darkest hour that what we are experiencing should be treated with respect? That we should even welcome it, because maybe it is being sent to us as a guide from beyond? Perhaps it is sent to us to sweep us clean so that we can contain more joy, more peace, more compassion, more love. What if this pain is not an accident, not something to get rid of as quickly as possible? What if there is something sacred in it?
Another mystical poet, Kahlil Gibran, says it beautifully, he puts it this way -
On Joy and Sorrow
by Kahlil Gibran
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.
Another beauty worth owning -
May we all meet our experience with this depth of understanding!
Have you ever noticed there is one thing that is never damaged by a Hurricane? What is it? The wind, the water itself survives the Hurricane just fine, because it is one with the Hurricane. Perhaps, if we can become as flowing as air and water we can become one with our own internal Hurricanes, our pain. When there is nothing in us that stays solid, nothing that resists the NOW we are able to find that place where we are always ok. Even death can’t harm us there. This is the way beyond the way, this is the illuminated trail that will take us home, I’ll meet you there my friends, at the intersection of HERE and NOW as one of my most beloved teachers would call it.
In Peace and Love…
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